Two Poems

The full portfolio of Patrizia Cavalli’s poems can be found in the February/March issue of the American Reader, available here. Translated from Italian by Geoffrey Brock.

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“I go, but where? O gods!”Always to cafés, restaurants, museums,swaying anorexic or bulimicbetween as always two mothersthis one who loves me falselyand would deny me all foodand that one who loves me falselyand would kill me with food,and me forced to choose one or the otherstarve or binge and meanwhileI’m staring at a boy’s beautiful faceso far from my true loveshounded into tourism by thesewretched roving watchdogs.

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Grave and determined each morningafter my disastrous night gamesI review the lesson with grim zeal—the lesson of fate and fortune.But why don’t I learn? It’s all so clear!Just yesterday they offered me a chance.

But how is it that these two entitiesalways have something to teach,and why to me? Their exhausting pedagogicalindustry, their exaggerated dedication—to me? Well, I can’t believe it, but if it’s truelet them leave me in peace,I’m not cut out for school.I simply didn’t want to be alone.